Breida and His Need For Speed
Fittingly enough, the first question in Matt Breida's Zoom session with reporters Wednesday dealt with his new white Lamborghini, which he recently showed off on Twitter.
“I got a Lamborghini not too long ago," Breida confirmed. "I like going fast. I run fast. I just like doing everything fast. I always wanted one and God blessed me to be able to get one.”
Yes, Breida runs fast.
In fact, as most everyone knows by now, NextGen Stats clocked him with the fastest speed in the NFL each of the past two seasons when he was with the 49ers before coming over to the Dolphins in a trade for a 2020 fifth-round pick, so in essence you could call him the fastest player in the NFL.
But if you know NFL players, you know there's a lot of pride in being the fastest or the strongest.
So naturally, it's not as though Breida is going to go unchallenged. In fact, there's already a Dolphins player who has challenged him to a race — and, no, it wasn't Jakeem Grant.
It was running back Kalen Ballage, who isn't shifty but happens to have a lot of straight-away speed, as he demonstrated on his 75-yard touchdown run at Minnesota during his rookie season in 2018.
First things first: Breida is a humble guy, but don't think he doesn't take pride in the "fastest player" title.
It's great," he said. "It's a great honor to be known as one of the fastest guys in the league. Me and Jakeem haven't talked about it too much, but Kalen got on me yesterday. He wants to race in the 100 meter. So I might have to race him. But I think me and Jakeem will eventually race. But we haven't talked about this yet."
To be sure, it would be interesting to watch Breida and Grant, two undersized players, involved in a race.
For the record, Breida clocked a 4.38 time at his pro day in 2017 and Grant clocked the same time at his own pro day the previous year, while Ballage clocked a 4.46 at the 2018 combine. It's important to note that 40 times tend to be better at a pro day than at the combine.
We also should note that new cornerback Byron Jones ran a 4.36 at his pro day when he was coming out of UConn, this after setting a world record in the long jump at the combine. Rookie first-round pick Noah Igbinoghene ran a 4.48 at the 2020 combine.
So the Dolphins do have a few players who could give Breida a good race. But the title still belongs to him.
Just check out his answer when he was asked who's the fastest player in the NFL: "Oh man. You guys know the answer to this question. You guys see the NextGen stats for the past two years. I always get this question. And until someone beats my time, beats me out, I'm still the fastest guy."
